CGI Variable HTTP_REFERER

Noting the previous URL upon arrival at a site

[OceanBear]

I am trying to determine where a visitor comes from when arriving at my website - wanting to give credit where it is due and for curiosity as well.

I had understood hat this is a simple matter of looking at the HTTP_REFERER CGI variable.

My first attempt failed because there was no indication of an arrival at index.html (duh).

So I tried to be clever and made a tiny webpage which did nothing other than to send a request directly to the server to produce my home page - and - still empty.

So how can we get this information?

[Moby_Dim]

Look for all the information you need in logfiles.

[mattur]

Oceanbear, you just need to follow a link in your browser from any page to your tracking page for the HTTP_REFERER value to be set.

[encyclo]

Bear in mind that the referrer string is not always sent - for example, if you use Norton Internet Security the referrer is blocked by default. Also, it is not always reliable - tools exist to send any referrer string you want.

You should speak to your hosting company - the referrer details should be available in the logs (which are supplied on all decent hosting packages).